Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Institute for Forecasting and Macroeconomic Research (IPMI) is actively applying approaches to the analysis of alternative indicators of economic development.

The use of official statistics in countries with a high share of the informal sector in the economy can lead to erroneous conclusions. Since a number of economic indicators, such as GDP, volumes of services and retail trade, are formed only on the basis of reports submitted by officially registered entities, therefore, there are doubts about their reliability.

Image of night illumination from space (NTL - Nighttime lights) is a popular type of information used to assess the economic performance of regions, as well as to determine the economic consequences of various external shocks. NTL allows you to form a general idea of the distribution of the population in the regions of the country, its density, the distribution of production forces, and, ultimately, the economically active part of the country’s territory.

The results of night image processing, obtained from a satellite in 63 different colors, show that in December 2021, the level of illumination at night compared to the corresponding period in 2016 in Kyrgyzstan increased by 11.8%, Kazakhstan - by 15.5%, Uzbekistan - by 47.2%, Turkmenistan - by 37.5%, Tajikistan - by 64.4%. At the same time, in 2021, the GDP of Kyrgyzstan increased by 7.8% compared to 2016, Kazakhstan - by 14.9%, Uzbekistan - by 27.3%, Turkmenistan - by 35.2%, Tajikistan - by 41.1%. %.

Observations have shown that the level of night illumination corresponds to the scale of the economy of the countries. In particular, among the 5 countries considered, Kazakhstan is the leader in terms of GDP and a high level of illumination (DN value - NTL = 9907701.5 pixels). The next positions are occupied by Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the illumination level of which is, respectively: DN = 1809744.8 and 1774334.1 pixels. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan rank last in terms of GDP and night illumination.

Among the regions of our country, the level of illumination in Khorezm, Ferghana and Samarkand regions increased by 1.9-3.6 times in 2016-2021. In the Kashkadarya region, where the lowest GRP growth rates (18.9%) are noted, the smallest change in the level of illumination is observed (0.8%).